Former Tibetan political prisoner Golog Jigme meeting with US Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on July 26, 2018 at the U.S. Department of State, in Washington, D.C. Photo: TPI

President Dr Lobsang Sangay with the Thank You India Souvenir – A Dharmachakra representing the wheel of Universal Truth, at the press conference at Press Club of India on January 18, 2018. Photo: CTA/DIIR/Tenzin Phende

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Dharamshala: – Despite strong condemnation by the international community, including worldwide rights group, the Chinese communist regime in Tibet is imposing further controls on internet use and electronic publishing, in an effort to to crack down even harder on Tibetan writers, artists, intellectuals, and cultural advocates who criticized Chinese government failed policies.

At a meeting on May 12 of the State Council's information office, Dong Yunhu, the Tibet Autonomous Region's propaganda department head, vowed to "seal and stifle" the internet in an effort to defang separatist groups, reported Reuters May 14, citing China's cabinet.

"We must bring down pressure from the sky, find and confiscate materials on the ground, and seal and stifle the internet – the holy trinity of supervision and control of the system," Dong was quoted as saying. "(This is) to cut off Tibetan separatist propaganda from infiltrating and destroying all manner of communication."

In Tibet today, Tibetan writers, intellectuals, musicians, artists, environmentalists, and religious figures are being arbitrary arrested, imprisoned and tortured by Chinese authorities for merely posting an article to a blog, writing an essay, editing a magazine, sending information by text message, or singing songs that express the suffering of the Tibetan people.

During Chinese President Xi Jinping's recent three-day official visit to France, the Paris based Reporters Without Borders labeled him as an internet enemy and strongly condemned China's growing harassment of journalists and its mistreatment of cyber-dissidents and activists who try to expose the constant human rights violations and persecution of human rights defenders.

China is ranked 175th out of 180 countries in the press freedom index that Reporters Without Borders published in February and is more deserving than ever of inclusion in the Reporters Without Borders list of Enemies of the Internet, the latest version of which was issued earlier this month.